Dick Cheney: Even bigger monster than you thought

Listen to the man with a taxpayer-funded new
heart wax indifferent to the life of his donor

You’ve
probably heard that Dick Cheney agrees with Bill Clinton about letting
people who are losing private insurance keep their old plans, as
President Obama repeatedly seemed to promise they could. That’s not
surprising: Cheney is a troll who maligns the president whenever he can,
and piling on with Clinton is a special kind of fun. Yes, it’s
outrageous that a man who has enjoyed many millions of dollars of
taxpayer-funded medical care doesn’t give a damn about the uninsured in
our society, but that’s Dick Cheney.
Still, I was a little
startled to hear the former vice president express total indifference to
questions about his heart donor in a revealing interview with Larry
King (it airs Thursday night; here’s a clip).
It’s a window into his utter entitlement and self-absorption, and he
comes off as an even bigger monster than I’d thought. Most people would
at least feign interest in the donor; Cheney can’t manage it.
When
King asks if he knows the identity of the person whose heart keeps him
alive, Cheney, who is promoting a book about his transplant experience,
says no, and adds, “it hadn’t been a priority for me.” Then he goes on:

When
I came out from under the anesthetic after the transplant, I was
euphoric. I’d had–I’d been given the gift of additional lives,
additional years of life. For the family of the donor, they’d just been
[through] some terrible tragedy, they’d lost a family member. Can’t
tell why, obviously, when you don’t know the details, but the way I
think of it from a psychological standpoint is that it’s my new heart,
not someone else’s old heart. And I always thank the donor, generically
thank donors for the gift that I’ve been given, but I don’t spend time
wondering who had it, what they’d done, what kind of person.

“It’s
my new heart, not someone else’s old heart.” Consider the complete
self-centeredness of that statement, and the utter lack of empathy. I
shouldn’t be surprised at that — war criminals and torture-promoters
aren’t known for their empathy — but I was. Cheney’s so absorbed in his
great good luck that he can’t help sharing: “My cardiologist told me at
one point, ‘You know, Dick, the transplant is a spiritual experience,
not just for the patient, but also for the team.’” What a generous guy,
sharing that “spiritual experience” with his cardiology team! So: Cheney
is happy to have a new heart, but doesn’t bother to “spend time
wondering who had it, what they’d done, what kind of person.”

And
his statement that it wasn’t a “priority” to learn about his heart
donor revealingly echoes his explanation for getting five deferments
from the Vietnam War: The notorious war hawk famously told the
Washington Post: “I had other priorities in the ’60s than military
service.” Now he has other priorities than learning about his heart
donor.
It’s certainly not compulsory to find out about the person
who died so that you could live – who gave what Cheney called “the gift
of life itself.” There may be valid psychological reasons not to. I
don’t judge that decision. But I can’t get over the coldness required to
express complete indifference to knowing about that person, and their
family’s suffering.
Or could it be compassion? For a lot of
people, the tragedy of a family member dying would be compounded, not
lessened, by learning that their heart went to Cheney. Nah, there’s
neither compassion nor self-awareness in the way Cheney talks about
receiving “the gift of life,” from American taxpayers or from his
mystery heart donor.